Method of and an apparatus for reclaiming metal from scrap wire and cable

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and a method for reclaiming scrap metal from insulated cables or wires. The insulated wires are chopped into short lengths and subjected to high squeezing pressure between a pair of hard surfaces to crush the casings and destroy the integrity thereof. During the squeezing, the metal pieces are somewhat flattened and the pieces of casing are forced apart, exposing the metal. The metal pieces then fall away or are knocked away from the respective pieces of casing. The metal and casing pieces are then segregated from each other.

PATENTEB man 12 I972 3. 7 O5 694 SHEET 1 BF 2 PATENTED DEC 1 2 I972SHEET 2 BF 2 METHOD OF AND AN APPARATUS FOR RECLAIMING METAL FROM SCRAPWIRE AN CABLE This invention relates to a reclaiming process andapparatus and more particularly to reclaiming scrap metal from insulatedelectrical cables or wires to salvage the interior conductor metal fromits insulating casing.

Recovery of metal, usually copper or aluminum, from scrap wire or cable,hereinafter referred to as wire, has been performed by burning theinsulation casing from the wire. Such burning is objectionable as itspollutes the air, destroys the casing, and may adversely affect themetal.

A so-called cold process for recovery of the wire metal and'casing isalso known in which the wire is chopped into very fine pieces which aregranular in size, and then the casing is separated from the metal by asubsequent shaking or screening operation, like threshing. This choppingof the wire into such very fine pieces that most of the casing will nolonger remain on the interior metal, particularly if shaken or vibrated,is not'altogether successful as a sizeable percentage of the choppedwire granules still retain an outer casing and must be reprocessed ordiscarded. The reprocessing involves putting the unseparated materialthrough the chopping process again to produce smaller particles. Eventhis is not entirely successful as after the particles have been made tosmall for further processing, some still have metal attached to piecesof casing. This latter can be sold only as low grade scrap.

Chopping of the wire into such fine granular pieces requires manycuttings of the wire, which necessarily results in a low rate ofthroughput. The most serious disadvantages, however, relate to bladewear, occasioned in large measure by pieces of steel in the wire scrap,such as messengers. The cutting is done by chopping blades which must besharpened or replaced each work shift. Sharpening of course wears theblades away. The blocks or anvils against which the blades strike alsowear or break with use. This is an important cost, but more important isthat the wearing of the blades slows the process and on occasion bringsit to a halt. As the blades become dull, they do not cut sharply. Thedull cuts produce pieces of wire of fishhook shape that are difficult toprocess, making it more difficult to separate the metal from theinsulation. The cuts by dull blades result in many incomplete cuts,requiring more cuts to produce small enough pieces, requiring a lowerthroughput. If the operator is not careful to reduce throughput, theprocess chokes up and most be stopped to clean out the machinery. Worstof all, the repeated cutting with dull blades generates so much heatfrom friction that the granules actually melt down, resulting in a fusedmass which can be cleaned out only with great difficulty and at greatexpense. It requires careful control of the process in order to operateat a fast enough rate to be economical without operating so fast as tocause the machinery to have to be closed down entirely for takingcorrective measures.

Further, very fine particles are difficult to handle in certainoperations. For example, it is difficult to separate particles of metalpowder from pieces of casing by air flotation as many particles ofpowdered metal flow with the casing and are transported to scrap. Somerefining processes are designed to use nuggets of metal,

and a portion of fine particles is lost up a stack when they are presentin the metal being refined.

Also, in this known process, segregation of the metal and casing isachieved in part with water separator means in which the plastic casingis carried away by flotation and metal is collected on the bottom of theseparator. Such water separators are costly to build and run, and thewater process is relatively messy and may produce wet, slippery andunsafe working conditions. While such a cold and wet process has someadvantages over the burning process, it requires considerable personneland a relatively high capital investment.

Accordingly, a general object of the invention is to provide an improvedmethod and apparatus for reclaiming metal and/or the insulation plasticfrom scrap wire.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will A become apparentfrom the following detailed description taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of an apparatus for I practicing themethod for reclaiming scrap electrical conductor wire and/or its casing;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a piece of insulated wire beforesqueezing;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of easing pieces and pieces ofmetal of the wire of FIG. 2 after they have been squeezed and separated;and

FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the invention.

As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, the invention isembodied in an apparatus 1 for removing from wires or cables 2 theirtough, flexible, outer casings 3 and to reclaim the metal 5 comprisingtheir interior electrical conductors. The casing materials may also bereclaimed. The casing materials are usually made of plastic such aspolyethylene, polyvinyl chloride or a combination of these or otherplastics and, in some instances, rubber or some other elastomericmaterial. Sometimes the insulation is fibrous, as paper. The metal isusually a malleable copper. In accordance with the present invention andthe preferred method, these scrap wires 2, which are usually long,entangled, bent and kinked, are chopped into convenient lengths orpieces. These chopped wire pieces are then squeezed with sufficientpressure to crush the surrounding casing 3 and expose the interior wiremetal 5 along substantially the entire length of each piece with themetal 5 being deformed into metal pieces 9 and the easing into casingpieces 11 (FIG. 3) detached from the metal pieces 9. The metal pieces 9and the casing pieces 11 are then segregated from each other andcollected.

The preferred manner of squeezing the chopped wire pieces to separatethe casing and metal materials of the insulated wire is to insert thechopped wire pieces into the nip of a pair of counter rotating squeezerolls, preferably of hardened steel, which have hard outer cylindricalsurfaces disposed closely adjacent each other and to exert sufficientlyhigh pressure on the easing that the latter is crushed so as to besevered along at least one continuous line on each side of the wire .torelease the wire metal 5. At the same time, depending upon the relativediameter of the conductor, the metal pieces 9 are flattened to a greateror lesser degree, preferably just slightly.

Referring now in greater detail to the individual elements of theillustrated apparatus 1, scrap wire is often collected and madeavailable for reclamation in large bales in which are accumulatedvarious lengths of insulated wire having different diameters andoften'with different kinds of easing materials, such as, for example,polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride plastics. The wires 2 are usuallybent and kinked within the bale and are entangled with one another.Wires 2 from the bales are conveyed on a conveyor 13 to a choppingstation 14 at which a chopping means 15, chops the wires into relativelylarge pieces 16. The preferred chopping means includes arotating drum 17having bar shaped cutters 18 rotatable past a fixed bed blade or block19 to chop the wires into' relatively long lengths. Preferably the wires'2 are chopped into pieces 16 having lengths which result inmost of thewires being discrete-pieces, i.e., non-entangled and separable from 1each other. The chopping means may be a cutting unit about 3 h feet longand 2 feet in diameter with five cutting blades 18 driven by a motor 20.Obviously the cuts are more than a foot apart; however, the cut wiresare carried around by the blades 18 and recut and recut until they aresmall enough to fall through a screen 21. The screen may comprise arz-inch plate drilled to provide l-inch openings, thus passing wirepieces that are about 1 inch long and smaller as well as somewhat longerpieces passing through when they are aligned with a hole or have acurled up portion passing through a hole.

The pieces 16 are conveyed by a conveyor 23 to a hopper 25. On the wayit is preferable to remove iron and steel pieces, that would otherwisewear or damage subsequent equipment or contaminate the final product.Such pieces are often present from the messengers common in cables. Suchpieces are conveniently removed magnetically, as by a magnetized roll 24associated with conveyors 26 and 28. The pieces are preferably agitatedin the hopper to keep them in a fluent state. The agitation may be byair flow or shaking to prevent clumps or large accumulations of thepieces 16 which would interfere with subsequent operations. The piecesfall from the hopper 25 to a second chopping station 27 at which asecond chopping means 29 chops the wire into smaller pieces. It has beenfound suitable to use two choppers at this station each about incheslong about about 1 15 feet in diameter and comprising a rotating drum 31driven by a motor 32 and having five cutting blades 33 and a fixed bedblade 35. The outlet from each of the choppers at the second choppingstation '27 is covered by a screen 37 having smaller openings than thoseof the first screen 21, e.g., three-eighths inch. The pieces 16 arefurther out by the chopping means 29 into smaller pieces 39, which arerecycled by the blades 33 until they are small enough to fall throughthe screen 37. The chopped wire pieces 39 may be about one-half inch inlength with a number of random-sized smaller pieces as cut off bychance. However, for the reasons given above, relatively few are asshort as the very short chopped wire granules formed in the prior art,which had lengths comparable to the diameters of the wires.

From the chopping station 27, the chopped wires 39 fall onto conveyor 41whereby they are conveyed into a hopper 43 wherein the pieces may bekept fluent by air flow or mechanical agitation. From the hopper 43, the

chopped wires fall onto a flow spreader which may comprise a flutedpiece of sheet metal, with the flutes fanning out in the direction offlow, thereby causing the chopped wires 39 to fall relatively uniformlyover a relatively wide area. The chopped wires 39 then fall between apair of hard rolls 47, 49 having hard, relatively unyielding surfaces.

The squeeze rolls 47 and 49 are preferably formed of hardened steel andhave sufficiently large diameters as to provide surfaces which willfrictionally grip the wire pieces and carry them into and through thenip while squeezing casing and metal. The squeeze rolls 47 and 49 defineat the closest adjacent portions of their peripheral surfaces a gapwhich is less in dimension than the diameter of the wire metal 5 of thesmallest diameter being processed for reclamation. It is to berecognized, however, that an occasionalvery small diameter wire might beincluded in thescrap and might pass through the nip without beingdetached from its casing; however, such an incidental happening does notdetract from the fact that substantially all of the wire will havecasings and wire metals detached from each other after passing throughthe nip. Further, it has been found that the squeezing operation oftenloosens the casing from the interior conductor even when the conductorsare to small to permit the casing to be split, thus permittingsubsequent separation, particularly where the squeezed wire passesthrough a cutter. Preferably, the gap between squeeze rolls at the nipis sufficiently narrow to assure some flattening of the wire metal 5thereby assuring that the casingmaterial is being crushed completelythrough to expose the interior metal and to destroy the integrity of theannular casing in which the metal wire is captured. The squeeze rolls 45and 47 are relatively massive. It has been found suitable to use rolls20 inches in diameter and 3 feet long, weighingabout 1 ton apiece. Theyare mounted for rotation by a motor 46 in respective blocks. 48 and 50which are relatively immovably mounted so as to maintain the desired gapin the nip. Rotation at a rate of 228 RPM has been found suitable. Thesqueezing which herein is acompressing of the wires between opposingsurfaces may be accomplished by other means than a pair of squeezerolls, but the latter are preferred.

In accordance with the present invention, the difficult problem ofremoving tough, non-rigid casings from wire metal is achieved bycompressing the wire pieces 39 with sufficient force that the casing 3is squeezed on diametrically opposite sides of the wire to a point wherethe integrity of the annular casing is destroyed at both places. Morespecifically, the casing is annular in cross-section and elongated andis usually a softer material than the interior conductor metal 5 On theother hand, the hardened steel squeeze rolls have surfaces which areconsiderably harder than either the casing or the interior conductormetal, which is usually malleable copper or aluminum. The squeeze rollsfrictionally contact opposite sides of the casing and apply increasingcompressive forces to the frictionally held portions of the casing whilecarrying the same inwardly into and through the nip between the squeezerolls. Such compressive forces on the frictionally gripped portions ofeasing cause great lateral deformation and movement of adjacentnon-frictionally gripped portions of the casing. Stated differently, thegripped portions of the casing. Stated differently, the portions of thecasing at the sides of the frictionally gripped portions are literallybeing crushed or extruded laterally outward as the strength of theeasing material is exceeded by the forces applied to the casing by therolls within the nip. This results in a severing of the surroundingcasing to expose the internal wire on both sides, and a squeezingoutward of the casing from the conductor metal 5. As the casing materialis not usually bonded to the wire metal 5 with any adhesive or bondingagent, the split, deformed and squeezed casing is usually readilyseparated from the wire. Simultaneously, the wire metal 5 is alsoundergoing compression being at least slightly flattened with anincrease in area within the nipof the squeeze rolls. This also aids inthe separation of the casing from the metal.

The resulting casing chips 11 and wire metal pieces 9 discharging fromthe nip of the squeeze rolls 47 and 49 are segregated from each other ata segregating station 51, preferably without the use of water as used inprior art process. Water separators suffer from the disadvantages ofbeing costly to operate and having difficult working conditions. Evenwhen water tables are used, it is usually possible to use a relativelyinexpensive one.

Although many of the metal pieces 9 may be free of easing pieces 11 asthey leave the nip, it is important to approach 100 percent efficiency,leaving practically no metal inthe scrap and practically no pieces ofcasing in the salvaged metal. This assures a high quality product withlittle loss of valuable metal to scrap; To assure that substantially allof the metal pieces 9 are free of easing pieces 11, the squeezed piecesare rapped sharply to knock apart any pieces that are stuck togetherafter squeezing. Conveniently, this may be done by a rotating paddlewheel or fan 53 having blades 55 which strike the pieces sharply andknock any metal pieces free from casing pieces. The squeezed materialfalls from the nip between rolls 47 and 49 against the moving blades 55.The pieces are thereby driven sharply against a plate 54 where anypieces of metal 9 still having pieces of casing adhering thereto areknocked free. The metal pieces 9 and the pieces of casing 11, free fromone another, are carried by a vibratory metering conveyor 56 to thesegregating station 51, which may comprise a conventional segregator 57where the denser metal pieces 9 are segregated from the lighter casingpieces 11 by blowing, sucking and vibrating. It may take the form of avibrating screen 60 inclined upwardly in the direction of flow andtransversely of flow. It is vibrated in the direction of flow. Thiscauses the denser pieces of metal to move preferentially upward alongthe screen until they are discharged at the end through a chute 58 intoa receptacle S9. The lighter pieces of casing are preferentiallylevitated by a blast of air from a conduit 61 below the table and aresucked away through a conduit 63 above the table It may be mentionedthat because the plastic casing is cut into two pieces for each piece ofinner wire, the casing pieces are lighter and therefore more easilysucked from the metal pieces without lifting any substantial portion ofsmall metal particles. The separated pieces are also of a shape morereadily levitated than the tubular pieces; Those casing pieces notsucked up through the conduit 63 settle near the lower end of thesegregator 5,7 and fall off the lower end through a chute 64. in

either case, the pieces of casing are then scrapped or reclaimed as thecase may be.

There may be some particles that are not segregated as either casingpieces or metal pieces. These fall from the segregator 57 intermediateits ends and fall through a chute 65. These may be further processed, asby being passed through the process a second time. An alternative oradditional manner of segregating the casing chips 1 1 from the wirepieces 9 is to subject the casing chips and metal pieces to an electriccharge. This preferentially charges the chips of insulation. The chargedplastic chips are then electrostatically attracted from a conveyor whichcarries both the casing chips and the metal pieces.

A modified apparatus'is shown in FIG. 4 wherein the fan 53 is eliminatedand the chopping mean 29 is used for the function of knocking the metalpieces 9 from their associated casing pieces 11 as well as for theaforementioned function of cutting the wires into smaller pieces. Withthe elimination of the fan 53, the squeeze rolls 47 and 49 arerepositioned so that the output from the hopper 43 falls directly ontothe vibratory conveyor 56 whence it is conveyed to the segregator 57'. Asubstantial portion of this output comprises pieces of metal withinsulation adhering to them, these being the chopped pieces of wire thathave not'been squeezed. These pieces of metal with casing adheringthereto are not so dense as the metal pieces along yet are more densethan the pieces of easing alone. They, therefore, are not drawn off inthe conduit 63, nor do they climb the segregator 57 to the top. Rather,provided the segregator is suitably disposed in a wellknown manner, theymove apart way up the segregator 57 before falling off the side of thesegregator through the chute 65. The chute 65 directs the metal pieceswith casing attached onto a conveyor 67 which conveys them into a hopper69, whence they 'fall onto the flow spreader 45 and then between thesqueeze rolls 47 and 49.

in passing through the nip between the squeeze rolls 47 and 49, thecasing is split and the inner metal deformed, as described above. Theninstead of being directed onto a fan, the squeezed product is conveyedby a conveyor 70 into the hopper 2 ,,Whence they fall into the choppingmeans 29 where the metal is knocked free of the casing. This time, whenthe metal pieces reach the segregator 57, they are vibrated to the endof the segregator and fall into the receptacle 59, the easing piecesbeing levitated into the conduit 63 or falling into the chute 64. Thenewly added unsqueezed pieces from the chopping means 29 fall into thechute 65 and are conveyed to the squeeze rolls 47 and 49 for squeezingand detaching of the casing pieces from the interior metal.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the preferred method includesthe steps of providing insulated wire in pieces relatively long relativeto granules and squeezing the wire pieces with sufficient pressure todestroy the integrity of the annular casing to the extent that thecasing is or may be detached from the metal pieces. The metal pieces arethen segregated from the casing pieces. The particular apparatus usedfor performing the segregation may take various forms, such as thoseabove described or others known in the art.

In the foregoing it will be seen that this invention solves thedifficult problem of separating the casing from the metal of wireswithout the necessity of burning the casing. The squeezing of the casingfrom the wire metal provides a process which is relatively inexpensiveand eliminates the necessity for chopping the wire into such finegranular pieces as in prior methods.

While a preferred embodiment has been shown and described, it will beunderstood that there is no intent to limit the invention by suchdisclosure but, rather, it is intended to cover allmodifications andalternate constructions falling within the spirit and scope of theinvention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is: l. A method of reclaiming materials from'insulatedwire having interior conductor metal and asurrounding electricallyinsulating casing comprising the steps of:

) squeezing each piece of insulated wire between hard surfaces on a pairof rotating cylindrical rolls rotating at substantially the sameperipheral velocity with squeezing pressure without any substantialgrinding of the pieces and with sufficient pressure to extrudethesurrounding casing to destroy its integrity and expose theinterior'conductor metal alongsubstantially the entire length of eachpiece, and segregating the resulting metal pieces from the casingpieces. '2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherei said segregatingcomprises separating said metal pieces from said casing pieces by agravity separating means. 3. A method in accordance with claim 2, inwhich said casing pieces are lifted from said metal pieces by a pressuredifferential.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the product of squeezingis rapped to detach casing pieces from their associated metal pieces.

5. A method in. accordance with claim 1, wherein said segregatingcomprises selectively electrically charging said casing pieces, andelectrostatically attracting the charged casing pieces from the .metalpieces. I

6. A method of recovery of material from scrap insulated wire having anouter encircling casing and an interior conductor metal, including thesteps of chopping insulated wire into pieces, inserting the chopped wirepieces into the nip of a pair of rotating squeeze rolls havingperipheral surfaces rotating at substantially the same velocity andharder than the conductor metal, applying sufficient squeezing forcewithin the nip of said rolls without any substantial grinding of thepieces to breach the encircling casing, detaching the casing pieces fromthe respective metal pieces, and segregating the metal pieces from thedetached pieces of casing.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6, in which the segregating stepsegregates the squeezed'product into metal pieces, detached pieces ofcasing, and chopped wire pieces in which casing adheres to the metal,and in which the latter class of product is inserted into said nip andthe squeezed product is returned to the chopping step for detachingadherent casing pieces from their associated metal pieces.

8. An apparatus for reclaiming material from insulated wire and forseparating interior conductor metal from a surrounding insulatingcasing, said apparatus comprising: means for chopping the insulated wireinto d'screte ieces means ors ace in idco dwire pieces comprising a pairof har si n tanti ali y s mooth surfaced counterrotating cylindricalrolls. having peripheral-surfaces rotating at substantially the samevelocity'and having a hip therebetweeninto which are inserted thechopped wire pieces, said rolls being spaced apart by a distance lessthan the diameter of the metal conductor of substantially all wire -tobe processed for reclamation to split said casing and thereby exposesaid conductor metal 'along substantially its entire length, and meansfor segregating the resulting metal pieces and casing pieces from eachother.

v9. A method of reclaiming materials from substantially cylindricalpieces of electrical wirehaving interior conductor metal and asubstantially cylindrical surrounding electricallyinsulating casing ofplastic comprising the steps of: squeezing the cylindrical piecesbetween hard cylindrical rolls having peripheral surfaces rotating atsubstantially the same velocity and applying squeezing pressure withoutany substantial grinding of the pieces sufficient to split and extrudethe surrounding cylindrical plastic casing to destroy its integrity andto form flattened surface areas on the interior conductor metal, andsegregating the resulting metal pieces from the casing pieces.

10. An apparatus in accordance with claim 8, including means for rappingthe squeezed product to detach casing pieces from their associated metalpieces.

11. An apparatus in accordance with claim 10, wherein said means forsegregating segregates the squeezed product into metal pieces, detachedpieces of casing, and metal pieces to which casing adheres, and in whichsaid means for rapping includes conveyor means for returning said metalpieces to which casing adheres to said means for chopping. I

12. An apparatus in accordance with claim 11, wherein .said means forsqueezing is disposed in the return path from said means for segregatingto said means for chopping.

13. A method of recovery of material from scrap insulated wire having anouter encircling casing and an interior conductor metal, including thesteps of: chopping insulated wire into pieces with some pieces ofconductor metal being separated from its associated case during thechopping, segregating the metal pieces from the casing pieces and fromthe chopped wire pieces, inserting the chopped wire pieces into the nipof a pair of rotating squeeze rolls having peripheral surf facesrotating at substantially the same velocity and harder than theconductor metal, applying sufficient squeezing force without anysubstantial grinding-of the pieces within the nip of said rolls tobreach the encircling casing, detaching the casing pieces from therespective metal pieces, and segregating the squeezed metal pieces fromthe detached squeezed pieces of casing and returning any insulated wirepieces to the squeezing rolls for another squeezing operation.

14. A method in accordance with claim 13 including the steps of using anair pressure differential to remove light insulating casing materialsand using an air vibrating table to form discrete streams of metal andcasings for collection and a stream of wire pieces for squeezing.

* a a a a t nnnr

2. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said segregatingcomprises separating said metal pieces from said casing pieces by agravity separating means.
 3. A method in accordance with claim 2, inwhich said casing pieces are lifted from said metal pieces by a pressuredifferential.
 4. A method in accordance with claim 1, wherein theproduct of squeezing is rapped to detach casing pieces from theirassociated metal pieces.
 5. A method in accordance with claim 1, whereinsaid segregating comprises selectively electrically charging said casingpieces, and electrostatically attracting the charged casing pieces fromthe metal pieces.
 6. A method of recovery of material from scrapinsulated wire having an outer encircling casing and an interiorconductor metal, including the steps of chopping insulated wire intopieces, inserting the chopped wire pieces into the nip of a pair ofrotating squeeze rolls having peripheral surfaces rotating atsubstantially the same velocity and harder than the conductor metal,applying sufficient squeezing force within the nip of said rolls withoutany substantial grinding of the pieces to breach the encircling casing,detaching the casing pieces from the respective metal pieces, andsegregating the metal pieces from the detached pieces of casing.
 7. Amethod in accordance with claim 6, in which the segregating stepsegregates the squeezed product into metal pieces, detached pieces ofcasing, and chopped wire pieces in which casing adheres to the metal,and in which the latter class of product is inserted into said nip andthe squeezed product is returned to the chopping step for detachingadherent casing pieces from their associated metal pieces.
 8. Anapparatus for reclaiming material from insulated wire and for separatinginterior conductor metal from a surrounding insulating casing, saidapparatus comprising: means for chopping the insulated wire intodiscrete pieces, means for squeezing said chopped wire pieces comprisinga pair of hard, substantially smooth surfaced counterrotatingcylindrical rolls having peripheral surfaces rotating at substantiallythe same velocity and having a nip therebetween into which are insertedthe chopped wire pieces, said rolls being spaced apart by a distanceless than the diameter of the metal conductor of substantially all wireto be processed for reclamation to split said casing and thereby exposesaid conductor metal along substantially its entire length, and meansfor segregating the resulting metal pieces and casing pieces from eachother.
 9. A method of reclaiming materials from substantiallycylindrical pieces of electrical wire having interior conductor metaland a substantially cylindrical surrounding electrically insulatingcasing of plastic comprising the steps of: squeezing the cylindricalpieces between hard cylindrical rolls having peripheral surfacesrotating at substantially the same velocity and applying squeezingpressure without any substantial grinding of the pieces sufficient tosplit and extrude the surrounding cylindrical plastic casing to destroyits integrity and to form flattened surface areas on the interiorconductor metal, and segregating the resulting metal pieces from thecasing pieces.
 10. An apparatus in accordance with claim 8, includingmeans for rapping the squeezed product to detach casing pieces fromtheir associated metal pieces.
 11. An apparatus in accordance with claim10, wherein said means for segregating segregates the squeezed productinto metal pieces, detached pieces of casing, and metal pieces to whichcasing adheres, and in which said means for rapping includes conveyormeans for returning said metal pieces to which casing adheres to saidmeans for chopping.
 12. An apparatus in accordance with claim 11,wherein said means for squeezing is disposed in the return path fromsaid means for segregating to said means for chopping.
 13. A method ofrecovery of material from scrap insulated wire having an outerencircling casing and an interior conductor metal, including the stepsof: chopping insulated wire into pieces with some pieces of conductormetal being separated from its associated case during the chopping,segregating the metal pieces from the casing pieces and from the choppedwire pieces, inserting the chopped wire pieces into the nip of a pair ofrotating squeeze rolls having peripheral surfaces rotating atsubstantially the same velocity and harder than the conductor metal,applying sufficient squeezing force without any substantial grinding ofthe pieces within the nip of said rolls to breach the encircling casing,detaching the casing pieces from the respective metal pieces, andsegregating the squeezed metal pieces from the detached squeezed piecesof casing and returning any insulated wire pieces to the squeezing rollsfor another squeezing operation.
 14. A method in accordance with claim13 including the steps of using an air pressure differential to removelight insulating casing materials and using an air vIbrating table toform discrete streams of metal and casings for collection and a streamof wire pieces for squeezing.